Easily Thread-able Needle

ABSTRACT

A new needle design is described. The eye of the needle is gapped in such a way that it can be threaded easily without having to insert the thread through the eye of the needle. Rather a thread is guided naturally into the groove of the gap and allowed to fall into the eye of the needle. The gap is fashioned in such a way as to prevent thread fallout during operation as well as fabric from getting caught in the gap.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/047,760, filed Apr. 25, 2008.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new design of the traditional needle and in particular around the eye of the needle that allows for ease of threading without the need of any extraneous threading contraption.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Anyone who has tried to thread a needle can attest to the difficulty associated with such a task. To assist with this task various contraptions have been proposed.

Most of these contraptions rely on another device with the assistance of threading a needle. Moreover many of these contraptions require an initial passage of a device through the eye of the needle. While designed to be easier to pass such a device than a thread, it still requires such a delicate exercise. Moreover, the existence of such an extraneous apparatus in itself represents the hassle of maintaining an “additional” device.

That is none of these earlier contraptions or proposals does not deal directly with the design of the needle itself, which has remained unchanged so far.

The present invention proposes a new design for the eye of the needle that allows thread to be inserted easily into the eye without the need of an extraneous device and also without the need of having to thread the needle “through” the eye, whether be it by an extraneous device or using the thread itself.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention consists of a small gap near the lower portion of the eye of the needle designed to allow thread to be passed into the eye easily. The entry to the gap is smoothed so that while the thread can be passed in, the gaps will not get easily caught in fabric during usage.

Moreover the gap is designed in such a way as to preclude (or at least highly reduce) the possibility of the thread falling out. This design also prevents fabric from getting caught during operation as well.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention and, together with the detailed description, serve to explain the principles and implementations of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows a magnified view of the eye of a needle showing the gap near the lower end of the eye.

FIG. 2 shows a diagram of the thread insertion process, first step.

FIG. 3 shows a diagram of the thread insertion process, second step.

FIG. 4 shows a diagram of the needle that has been threaded.

FIG. 5 shows a diagram of the thread during its operation which causes the gap to close naturally thus preventing thread fallout.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention are described herein in the context of a design, method, and apparatus for a needle that allows for an easily thread-able design. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following detailed description of the present invention is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments of the present invention will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the present invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used throughout the drawings and the following detailed description to refer to the same or like parts.

Eye shall refer to the eye of the needle.

Shaft shall refer to the body of the needle leading up to the eye.

Gap shall refer to an opening entry at or near the base of the eye of the needle extending from the outer walls to the inside of the eye.

In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations described herein are shown and described. It will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made in order to achieve the engineer's specific goals, such as compliance with design-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one designer and engineer to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a engineering effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

In accordance with the present invention, the components and/or design elements may be implemented using various types of materials and deviations from the presented design. However, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that such deviations may be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventive concepts disclosed herein.

FIG. 1 shows a magnified diagram of the eye of a needle 1. There is a small gap 2 near the base of the eye of the needle 1. The gap 2 extends from the outside into the inner wall of the eye 1.

The gap 2 is composed of an inner lip 3 which faces flush against the outer lip 4 of the gap. The particular arrangement of the lips creates a small indentation, i.e. the gap 2. This fact is important in that it allows thread that is being threaded to naturally fall into the indentation of the gap 2.

The design is such that there is a natural tension of the inner lip 3 against the outer lip 4 of the gap. This tension forces the gap to be closed in its resting state.

Moreover both the inner 3 and outer 4 lips are smoothed around the edges. This is to discourage anything from getting caught during operation whether by the thread from inside of the eye 1 or by the fabric from the outside during operation.

Regardless, even if the thread should fall out somehow (however unlikely) it would be a simple matter of re-threading it easily.

FIG. 2 shows a diagram of thread insertion process, first step. Thread 5 is guided along the outer wall of the needle downward toward the gap 2. This process can be reversed by starting from the shaft 6 of the needle and pulling upward toward the gap 2 as well. FIG. 3 shows a diagram of thread insertion process, second step. The thread 5 is allowed to fall into the gap 2 by pulling the thread 5 into the eye and as the thread 5 is pulled against the inner lip 3 of the gap 2. This action causes the gap 2 to open by pulling against the tension of the inner lip 3 against the outer lip 4. In this step the thread enters into the eye of the needle through the gap 2.

Due to the slight inward slope of the inner lip 3 the thread 5 is naturally guided into the indentation of the gap 2. This facilitates in the threading process starting from the top of the needle as shown. The indentation of the gap 2 also facilitates in the threading process when starting from the shaft of the needle and moving upward, the indentation of the gap 2 allowing the thread to naturally fall into the groove created by the inner 3 and outer 4 lips.

FIG. 4 shows the thread 5 that has been threaded into the eye of the needle 1.

FIG. 5 shows a diagram of the needle during its operation. As the needle pulls against the thread 5 through fabric 7, the pulling action causes the thread 5 to pull against the eye of the needle 1. This pull causes the structure of the eye of the needle 1 to pull up (upward arrow in the diagram). As the eye 1 pulls up, it also causes an outward push to the right (rightward arrow in the diagram) of the inner lip 3 against the outer lip 4 of the gap 2. This action causes the gap 2 to close naturally during the operation.

This closing of the gap 2 has two effects. First it prevents the thread 5 from falling out during the operation. Moreover the thread 5 is already pulled away from the gap 2 near the base of the eye 1 and toward the back of the eye 1. Second, the fabric 7 itself has less chance of falling into the gap 2 which is forced to be closed.

Moreover as the needle passes through the fabric 7, since the outer lip 4 faces away from the fabric 7 with respect to the gap 2, the fabric 7 has no chance of falling into the gap 2 which is protected from the incoming fabric 7 by the outer lip 4. Moreover the smooth rounding of the edges of the outer lip 4 further discourages it from getting caught in fabric 7.

This design of the needle can be introduced into any type of a needle with any size for the eye, whether large or small. It precludes the need for an additional contraption for threading and allows for simple threading in one easy step.

Moreover the design of the gap is such that it can accommodate any thickness of the thread which can fit inside of the eye of the needle, since during the insertion process the gap can be opened to any size by the force of the pull as described in FIG. 3 above.

Moreover most threads become compressed during insertion process allowing even thicker threads to be threaded. Finally the thread can be threaded “through” the eye of the needle in the traditional way if desired or necessary.

While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s) that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the specified claims and their equivalents.

The essential claim of the invention is a small gap introduced into the eye of the needle which allows for an easy insertion of the thread. This gap can be designed and positioned in such a way which assays to maximize the ease of thread insertion, the prevention of thread fallout during usage, and the prevention of fabric from getting caught in the gap during usage. Any method or system that fulfills any or all of these general claims by similar principles falls within the field and ken of this present invention.

The purpose of the present invention was to demonstrate one possible implementation of the underlying spirit and intention of the invention. It is easy to imagine further elaboration of the present demonstration as well as a totally different method or mode of its implementation without departing from the scope and spirit of the claims of the present invention. 

1. A design for the eye of the needle comprising of a small gap (with a noticeable indentation or groove) at the lower end of the eye composed of an inner lip which lies flush against an outer lip allowing the needle to be threaded by passing the thread through the gap into the eye of the needle.
 2. The design of the gap in claim 1 such that during the operation of the needle as the needle is pulled through fabric in one direction, the opening of the gap faces away from the direction of the pull such that the fabric itself cannot be caught in the gap.
 3. The design of the gap in claim 1 such that as the needle pulls against the trailing thread the inner lip of the gap is pushed naturally against the outer lip of the gap by the force of the pull so as to cause the closing of the gap and prevent thread from falling out.
 4. The design of the gap in claim 1 such that the tip of the outer lip of the gap is smoothly rounded so as to prevent fabric from getting caught in any sharp edges of the lips.
 5. The design of the gap in claim 1 such that the tip of the inner lip of the gap is smoothly rounded so as to prevent the threaded thread from getting caught in the inner lips. 